It has become increasingly desirable in our communications-oriented society to upgrade and improve business and residential telephone equipment to add certain new features and services. Such features include: a second telephone line for a teenager, a co-worker, or a computer terminal; an intercom system for paging and monitoring; and the distribution of music or other information among a group of users at a particular location. However, since one cannot expect to find more than a single wire-pair at any given location, it is frequently necessary to supply additional wiring beyond the single wire-pair used for basic telephone service in order to increase the number of communication channels. Costs associated with adding or relocating wires can be significant. Furthermore, many commercially available systems that are used to increase information distribution capacity are incompatible with existing telephone equipment, so a user's investment is immediately eroded.
From a convenience standpoint, it is desirable for a customer to merely purchase a telephone product, take it home, and plug it into an existing telephone jack. Many systems that utilize the local telephone wire-pair at a user's premises require that a master station be placed in a series connection with the incoming wire-pair from the telephone central office. Series connections require that internal wiring be modified which usually means that a telephoen installer or an electrician needs to be hired. Series connections also have the drawback that the master station cannot be located at any telephone jack. Since the master station terinates the incoming wire-pair, it is typically located at the protector block or the telephone jack nearest to it. Relocating a master station presents difficulties because the connection must be electrically maintained at one point while the station is physically moved to another. Finally, even when the master station is compatible with existing telephone sets, should the master malfunction, series connected equipment is likely to malfunction as well.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide telephone apparatus that creates additional communication channels at a business or residential premises and is compatible with existing telephone extensions that share a common wire-pair.
It is another object of the invention to provide apparatus that combines signals from a first incoming telephone line with signals from a second incoming telephone line and distributes the combined signals over a single wire-pair.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide telephone apparatus, including a master and one or more remote stations, that plugs into any available telephone jack at the user's premises; and, should the master or remote station malfunction, not cause other connected equipment to malfunction.